Fresh from raising $20bn (R265bn) in investments, President Cyril Ramaphosa has challenged critics who claim that he is weak, insisting instead that he is effective and is driven by a desire to unite the ANC.

Ramaphosa was speaking during a wide-ranging interview following visits to Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

President Cyril Ramaphosa might be strong-armed to revise the budget presented by then finance minister Malusi Gigaba earlier this year, as alliance partners fight to reduce the burden on the poor caused by increasing fuel prices and the VAT rise.

However, after a number of ministers made presentations to the alliance council this week, it became clear that legislative limitations are proving a difficulty in coming up with workable solutions, despite Ramaphosa promising to come up with a set of measures to mitigate the tough economic situation.

The alliance, ANC, SA Communist Party (SACP) and union federation Cosatu will meet for the second time on Monday to consider options and their effect on the economy.

A charge of intimidation laid at Cape Town’s Muizenberg Police Station last week has apparently exposed a system of human trafficking that has smuggled skilled personnel into South Africa and then exploited them.

The charge was laid by Pakistani national Muhammad Nawaz, who owns a small electronics repair shop in Muizenberg.

The senior police officer who confirmed that Nawaz, a legal resident in the country since 2013, had laid the charge, was unaware that the IT specialist had first arrived in 2008 after crossing the border from Mozambique on foot.

In 1995, a year into his presidency, Nelson Mandela announced he would be donating a third of his presidential salary to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

Fast-forward 23 years, and current president Cyril Ramaphosa has followed suit, announcing in May this year during his Presidency Budget Vote that he would donate half his R3.6m annual salary to a fund that will be managed by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, directing the proceeds to worthy community-based projects.

After being presented with options, City Press learnt, Ramaphosa has also chosen children. The fund will be launched on Mandela Day on Wednesday.

Comedian Tumi Morake could not have asked for better news – following an incident in which she and her family were robbed at gunpoint – than being told she had been chosen among 32 comedians from around the world to feature in a series of Netflix.

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